Like the city it's in, the Museum has been renamed: from the Prince of Wales Museum, the Museum has changed its namesake to Shivaji, the legendary 17th-century warrior king. The transformation is symbolic, indicating the city's independence from colonial rule, but the contents have remained exactly the same. The museum is a gigantic, domed, bubbly-looking building set in carefully maintained tropical gardens which, when we were there, were too hot to walk in. The museum's collection is broad in scope: a whole zoo of stuffed animals and birds in the natural history section, exhibits on India's Paleolithic history, Hindu and Buddhist sculptures, Mogul miniatures, arms and armor, and Nepal and Tibet. All of these are interesting, and, while slightly dusty, they are well displayed.

The most striking exhibits are the sculptures. There is a series of tiny carvings of the Life of the Buddha, done in loving, delicate detail; it's an education in Buddhist history and iconography. The Hindu statues are largely individual statues of gods, with an emphasis on elephant-headed Ganesh, who is very popular in the area. There are also some unusual carved plaques commemorating royal land grants; these are marked with a donkey sodomizing a person, to indicate what will happen to anyone who violates its conditions.

A recorded audio tour is included with a foreigner's admission. This tour is very well done -- this is coming from someone who tends to resent audio tours as dumb and intrusive. The information is concise but detailed, and the tour allows you to request information about individual art works when you come to them, rather than forcing you to follow a set itinerary. The tour is designed to be sequential, but unless you're completely clueless about the Hindu pantheon, you won't get too confused if you ignore the sequence; on the other hand, if you are completely clueless about the gods, this is a great way to learn about them.

As often happens in older natural history museums, the displays of taxidermied animals and birds get a little creepy, but it's a good catalogue of Indian fauna. If you're interested in animals and bird-watching, it's a good place to start your trip.

We were, as usual on our off-season trip, the only Westerners in the crowded museum. We had almost as good a time people-watching as we did looking at the exhibits. The sentiment was returned by the rest of the museum-goers, who watched us attentively. Everyone was happy at the novelty: we got to see families of Sikhs in enormous turbans, and they got to see two pallid, pony-tailed Americans.

The museum has a cafe where you can buy a much-needed Fanta.